Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the snakes place and he can run it as he sees fit. It’s pretty bad when I won’t even drop a deuce anywhere near West Memphis. On second thought, it would probably make that place look and smell better.

 

Been a rather uneventful week this week. Well, maybe just a little aggravation thrown in the other day. Made it to the Loves in Hamilton Alabama Monday at 4pm. Had it planned since I picked up the load in Junction City Oregon that I would make it here, fuel, shower and take my 10 in order to leave at 0200 for my Montgomery drop at 6am then my Suwannee Ga drop at noon. All worked out exactly as planned, then the fun started. I was sent a deadhead move to the Atlanta drop yard to pick up an empty reefer to go up to Conyers Ga to load. The load time was for 19:30, but I was told they would load me early. So now I’m going around the loop and dealing with the Atlanta traffic a third time after getting the reefer. Get to the shipper at noon, check in and am told that they will call me with a door assignment. At 8pm I get the call to bump dock 38, I said to myself that loading early has a multitude of meanings to different people. I bump the dock and 20 minutes later the loader comes out and tells me they rejected the trailer because of ants. I’m sitting here after doing a split sleeper break with 1:15 left on my day, 8:30 at night in Atlanta and very tired. So, I send in a QC message, then call. Night dispatch wanted me to go to the Petro and get the trailer washed out. I told him that 1, I’m running out of time, 2, I’ve been up since 1:30 this morning, and 3, I’ve given this company 17.5 hours today, need a place to park and I’m exhausted and they weren’t getting one more minute of work out of me. He said what about the load, I told him that’s part of his job description to figure it out, and that I’m going back to the drop yard and get sleep. I did tell him I would redtag the trailer for the reason it was rejected, and that’s the last bit of work to end the 18th hour of my day. And that folks is exactly how it played out.

Next morning I wake up to the QC chirping away with a load assignment. Check it over and it’s a dry load out of LaGrange Ga going to Wintersville Ohio. I had a noon pickup time, hooked to the dry van I’ve had the last 2 weeks, made my coffee and a vegetable omelette, then drove the 60 miles to my pickup. Got loaded, missed the maniacs on 285 and made it to the safe haven at the Kentucky scales on 75. Dropped at 4pm yesterday then got a phone call from the load planner with a bunch of load choices. The best one is a drop and hook 9 miles from here going to Dallas for Sunday night. I’ll be able to finish a reset and leave out early in the morning with this 1300 mile trip.

 

Boars Head to Saint Louis with 2 drops for Monday, Boars Head to Forest City for anytime you get there, or bobtail to Groveport for leftover scraps, Lockborne to Memphis or GenPak.

 

Let’s see, repetition? After 8.5 years here, I’ve done GenPak out of Columbus probably 24 times, I’ve done Boars Head Newcastle on a Friday night for St. Louis a half dozen times, Newcastle Boars Head to Forest City Boars Head at least 10 times, not to mention that piss water we haul back to Wytheville out of Indy.

 

Repetition. Stay around long enough, and it becomes easy. This job is very easy once you learn the customers and where to be empty at certain times of the week.
The job is easy, it’s everything else that turns this profession into an abortion.